Development Co‑operation Profiles: Mastercard Foundation
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The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity and one of the largest foundations in the world. Established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company, the Foundation is an independent organisation with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa.
Its work aims at advancing education and financial inclusion, particularly to enable young people in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. The Foundation's Board of Directors and Leadership team determine its policies, operations, and program decisions.
This profile only concerns activities targeting ODA-eligible countries. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Mastercard Foundation provided USD 1.3 billion for development in 2023 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2022, this amount represents an increase of 11.4% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of the Mastercard Foundation's gross disbursements.
In 2023, Mastercard Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mainly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 496.7 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 468.1 million).
In 2023, Mastercard Foundation provided USD 72.3 million to the multilateral system, representing 5.7% of its total development finance. The entire multilateral contributions were earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes and were channelled through United Nations (UN) funds and programmes.
The UN system received USD 72.3 million from Mastercard Foundation in 2023. The most significant UN recipients were WFP (USD 59.5 million) and UNDP (USD 12.8 million).
See the section on Geographic and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system.
In 2023, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 496.7 million of the Mastercard Foundation's gross bilateral finance, of which 61.5% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, over a third (39.3%) was earmarked to specific projects or programmes, while none of the contributions were allocated to CSOs as core support. From 2022 to 2023, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 45.3% to 39.3%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2023, Mastercard Foundation's development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. USD 1.2 billion was allocated to Africa and USD 35.2 million to Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting respectively for 92.5% and 2.8% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 52.1 million (4.1%) was unspecified by region in 2023, mainly including multi-regional programmes, core support and research grants.
In 2023, 74.6% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Kenya, Ghana, and Ethiopia.
Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 422.5 million (33.4%) of Mastercard Foundation's gross disbursements in 2023. Mastercard Foundation allocated the highest share (35.8%) of its bilateral development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2023, followed by least developed countries (33.4%), noting that USD 278.9 million (22%) was unallocated by income group.
Furthermore, Mastercard Foundation allocated USD 325.7 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2023, and USD 50 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2023. The main SIDS recipient is Mauritius.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 700 million in 2023, representing 55.3% of Mastercard Foundation's bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extreme fragility received a sum of USD 18.4 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2023, Mastercard Foundation's largest allocations went to social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 73.4% of bilateral commitments (USD 1.5 billion). Bilateral contributions allocated to production sectors amounted to USD 551.2 million, while those to multi-sector totalled USD 8.6 million.
In 2023, Mastercard Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support to SDG 5 (gender equality) amounted to USD 88.5 million. Contributions to SDG 13 (climate action) totalled USD 44.4 million.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://mastercardfdn.org
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including the grant-equivalent methodology, core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, country programmable aid, channels of delivery, bilateral ODA unspecified/unallocated, bilateral allocable ODA, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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